Here we are, one day from expiration, and not only did the Company NOT give us a wage proposal but they had the nerve to give us a terrible proposal on job security and then tie that to US accepting their ridiculous absence proposal - a reduction for everyone of paid days, a maximum of five (5) sick days for anyone and NO PAID sick days for new workers.

Their JOG proposal not only limited JOG to people hired before 2005 (which takes it away from all of those hired until 2012, which is in our current agreement) but it also says if someone doesn’t qualify for a job they will be considered “declining” the position. So, they can virtually offer nothing by constantly offering jobs they know people cannot qualify for. To make matters worse they can completely cancel JOG if there are “severe economic or business conditions” (as determined by them) or a cessation of a line of business and other things.

Their “employment security” proposal was just as bad. They completely eliminated the watermark and the only protection they left in was that they would not involuntarily lay off more than 800. They also removed the watermark from Article 43. Without a watermark, if they layoff 800, continue VTP offerings (which are consider voluntary) and JOG people to other AT&T Companies, they can virtually eliminate Legacy T.

Needless to say, the team was furious. To bring this proposal to the table at this point in bargaining is an outrage. Bill pointed to the $25 million dollar fine AT&T has to pay for the foreign workers selling confidential information, the $40 million they had to pay because their lawyers messed up a court date, the 33% pay increase the Company gave John Stankey this year and the $133 million they spent to buy out their managers on March 31st. This Company can clearly afford to give us job security and give us fair wages and benefits yet with a day of bargaining left they have NOT put ONE POSITIVE proposal on the table for our members. With no other proposals forthcoming, OUR team left the bargaining table.

We are positive about one thing: we will not take the garbage they have offered. We will fight every day and strike if we must! They can put that in the bank!